In June of 1993, before the enactment of ‘No Child Left Behind’, Massachusetts passed comprehensive, standards-based reform legislation. The law, the Massachusetts Educational Reform Act (MERA), mandated that every school use state-developed curricula and standards.
Within These Walls (2011-2012) was produced a Massachusetts public high school nearly 20 years after the passage of MERA. I collaborated with students to co-create portraits that explored their relationship to their school, both as a place and as an institution. These images investigate students’ complex relationship to education while also meditating on the impact of standardization and uniformity in education.